


jump scares are fun (heart leaps aren't)

by birthdayblur



Category: Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Halloween, M/M, but what kind, seongwu gives minhyun a bruise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-26 01:30:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17132474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/birthdayblur/pseuds/birthdayblur
Summary: Minhyun’s only talked to Ong Seongwu through text so all he knows isA. he doesn’t like him (heswears)B. Seongwu's haunted house is the scariest thing on campusThen there’s a third, C. (all of the above aren’t true at all)





	jump scares are fun (heart leaps aren't)

**Author's Note:**

> prompt 104 for snow fox ｡･:*:･ﾟ  
> Where person A goes to the haunted house where person B is working as a ghost / monster and A gets so freaked out he hits person B. They meet again somewhere else, some time later where B recognizes A as the person who gave him a bruise but A doesn't know B is that guy.
> 
>  
> 
> As a precursor, I changed this prompt a little since Seongwu is a little more scared of haunted houses than Minhyun is. So in the spirit of Halloween, as Seongwu is the one who works at the haunted house, visitor Minhyun is the one getting the punch to the face 
> 
> have fun ｡･:*:･ﾟ

Well, Minhyun figures that he shouldn’t have said yes in the first place. It wouldn’t have been a good idea, considering the fact that he usually interacts with a total of (2) people on a daily basis, but sometimes things happen, things like Ong Seongwu, and _okay_ is just the easiest thing to say in response.

 _Okay_.

okay., as in the word he’d texted when he agreed to help out with the haunted house, which really shouldn’t have been something to agree to, but it happened with a few taps on a glass screen and now Minhyun has to deal with the consequences.

 _Okay_..., as in the only word which is in his head right now, staring at the questionable message just sent to him by Ong Seongwu via phone.

Minhyun quickly closes it and calls the first of the two people on his recently called list, the one who got him into this mess in the first place.

Besides himself.

“Jinyoung. You don’t happen to know how to turn back time do you?”

“Why, hyung?” Jinyoung replies, through what Minhyun suspects is a mouthful of chips. The brat. Some diet he’s on.

“Well I don’t know,” Minhyun replies in a low voice. “It _could_ be because of a certain president of a certain acting society.”

“Seongwu-hyung?” Jinyoung chirps, and Minhyun immediately tenses at the familiarity in the younger’s voice.

“Yes,” Minhyun continues. “I’m not sure if I want to make music for the haunted house anymore.”

“Didn’t you already finish it though?” the younger responds immediately, and Minhyun wrinkles his nose. “Seongwu-hyung sent the tracks through to the acting society group chat this morning. He wanted to know what we thought. Everyone says it’s good hyung, really scary. It is, I took a listen.”

Minhyun groans. He slaps a hand to his face. Then he hurriedly sends Jinyoung a screenshot.

“He messaged me this what is this supposed to mean??!!”

There’s silence. Then more crunching sounds. Minhyun twiddles his thumbs, trying to stay composed at the back of the seminar room. It’s times like this Minhyun’s happy he’s no longer in charge of the music society.

Everyone’s attention is on Jaehwan, fiddling with the projector at the front of the dimmed room. The screen goes bright and the title credits of the movie starts playing. Rapid piano music makes his heart bounce. Someone is approaching a house in the middle of the night.

“Maybe Seongwu-hyung’s an exhibitionist,” Jinyoung finally says, through the defiled object that’s Minhyun’s phone and not at all matching his level of hysteria.

“Why would you give him my number then?” Minhyun whisper-yells, fixing his eyes on the horror film to stop himself from imagining Seongwu with anything but clothes on. “He didn’t need to know my number. I didn’t want him to know my number.”

“I’m just joking hyung. You agreed to help him first. And then Seongwu-hyung needed to tell you what to do,” Jinyoung says matter-of-factly. “He’s nice. He hypes me up. And he wouldn’t have asked me if he didn’t trust you. So I’m sure he’s comfortable enough to text you while he’s eating breakfast pantsless.”

The mental image de-pixelates itself.

“I wouldn’t go around telling people though!” Minhyun shouts. No one in the room turns around. They’re too busy being traumatised by the masked man with a machete. “Why can’t he stick to normal things like ‘ _Thank you for the concern, Minhyun-gun. I indeed am eating enough food. In fact, at this very moment, I am nourishing myself with sustenance! What a lovely coincidence.’_ ”

There’s a long pause from the other end of the line. Minhyun strains his ears for Jinyoung’s answer, but he can only hear the screaming coming from the people watching the film. He shifts focus back to the projector screen. Oh shit, that’s scary.

“To be fair, Seongwu-hyung didn’t ask for anyone else’s number, just yours, so maybe-”

“Don’t say it,” Minhyun interrupts. That thought has definitely not crossed his mind. Not once. Ever. And he won’t let the kid he peer mentors speak it into existence.

“I’m just saying, what if-”

“Don’t. Say it.”

Minhyun hangs up. Unfortunately, KakaoTalk is still open.

 **hwang minhyun**  
[track1.mp3]  
[track2.mp3]  
[track3.mp3]

 **seongwu**  
ty!  
since it’s u i bet i don’t even have to play it :)  
just gonna put it straight in  
oh fuck  
that sounded weird lol  
doesn’t help that i’m not wearing pants either lol

His eyes narrow. The masked man suddenly appears behind the frightened woman. Everyone screams.

Minhyun only jumps a little. Then for some reason he finds himself grinning from ear to ear.

 

˚*❋ ❋ ❋*˚

 

To be clear, Minhyun doesn’t really get scared.

He’s not inhumane. He just doesn’t react to things immediately. Most of the time he internalises any screaming because the moment’s passed and it comes out as nervous laughter instead.

Still, he doesn’t get scared in the same way other people do. Other people lose their wits in the anticipation, thinking ahead to what may happen. Minhyun just lets it come to him. If it happens, it happens.

In essence, Minhyun suggests watching horror movies at the music society’s weekly gatherings because it’s _fun_ – not the D-rated gorey stuff– the critically acclaimed ones with killer soundtracks, the pacing and timing done _right._

Jaehwan says he’s psycho– Minhyun thinks that’s rich coming from him. Jaehwan just wants to do the same old sitting in circles with a guitar, acoustically harmonising for two hours straight. Minhyun’s been in the music society for exactly five years, president once, and he knows the music society’s more creative than _that._ They compose things, for goodness sake, opposed to the- the- acting society, for example, who really just follow directions.

So at least the _acting_ society can feign excitement and watch horror movies or whatever.

But you know who Minhyun knows isn’t scared of anything at all?

Seongwu.

Ong Seongwu.

He’s the president of the acting society, two years running, and he’s all smirks and winks and confidence and amazing facial features (according to the campus gossip. Minhyun does _not_ partake in that). Most importantly, he’s the mastermind behind Halloween week’s biggest campus event of the season– the haunted house.

Which is pretty darn creative and Minhyun only wishes he thought of the idea first. Last year, when Minhyun was still president of the music society, Seongwu had proposed it with the biggest smirk on his face, at the meetup of all society presidents, to decide non-overlapping activities for Halloween week. So basically, Seongwu’s infuriating.

Infuriating enough that Minhyun wants to know what goes on in his head. Which is why Minhyun had agreed to compose a soundtrack for this year’s haunted house.

It had been Jinyoung’s request, anyway. Minhyun can’t ever say no to Jinyoung.

 **uri bae jinyoung ♡♡♡ (never change this hyung!!!)**  
hyung i g2g  
need to scare ppl now

 **minhyun hyung ♡x100000**  
Abandon them  
Hehe  
Who cares about the acting society hehe

 **uri bae jinyoung ♡♡♡ (never change this hyung!!!)**  
i care!!!!!  
i like acting its fun

 **minhyun hyung ♡x100000**  
FINE you betrayer!  
Fake music major!  
Jinyoung?  
Come back

Minhyun sighs and puts his phone down on the table. Straightening himself in his chair, he starts staring at people walking past.

It’s an overused tactic– trying to coerce people into joining the music society with just his looks. However Jaehwan has gone off somewhere to do a roving serenading service with spooky songs, so now he really doesn’t have a choice.

Minhyun hasn’t a clue how singing-chanting _This is Halloween, This is Halloween_ , while strumming ominously on the guitar can attract people into joining the society. But yet again, his idea last year of frightening people from behind with jumpscare soundbites did nothing but cause his TA Jisung to slap him in the face.

You win some, you lose some.

After talking to some first year girls and managing to get a few sign-ups, Minhyun sits back down and scrolls through his KakaoTalk. It’s annoying how Seongwu’s right at the top of his recently sent messages, immediately under Jinyoung, and Minhyun wonders if he should just start sending “Hi” to everyone on his friend list and perhaps even a few abandoned group chats for good measure.

When agreeing to compose some haunting music, Minhyun hadn’t expected the agreement to also include giving his phone number to Ong Seongwu. But lo and behold, there comes Seongwu with his apologies and his gratitude, and his daily texts and his _morning!_ ’s. It’s addictive. Minhyun doesn’t like it. He doesn’t like that he likes it. Ugh.

Minhyun finishes sending the mass messages and puts his phone down in relief. It’s really only psychological and temporary. His heart feels settled for all but a few seconds when his phone lights back up.

 **seongwu**  
trick or treat?  
the ticketing booth @ the haunted house has eye candy  
u should come over, we’re in need of a little more :)

Minhyun rolls his eyes. Stupid Ong Seongwu with his stupid flirty texts. Minhyun doesn’t even know. God.

 **hwang minhyun**  
Aren’t you meant to be selling tickets.

 **seongwu**  
it’s all good i’m an extremely flexible person  
if ur scared, i can come in too if u like

 **hwang minhyun**  
...  
Okay.  
I’m pretty busy though.  
I’ll come by later.

 **seongwu**  
sweet

Minhyun’s face is sour. He knows because he’s pouting at the opened front camera app to check out his appearance– purely to adjust the red devil horn headband, he _swears_. Then he texts Daehwi to abandon Jaehwan and man the very non-busy table.

The theatre department’s auditorium is an old brick building five minutes out from where he currently is on campus. Minhyun’s heard that the acting society’s rigged it up to be spectacularly horrifying, even better than it was last year. He’s never been before so he’s not too sure.

Maybe it’s the excitement of seeing something for the first time that’s making his heart all fluttery. The haunted house, that is.

 **seongwu**  
in case u don’t recognise me, i’m the one who looks sucker punched in the jaw  
went a bit overboard w/ the blood

 **hwang minhyun**  
I’m pretty sure I know what you look like.  
Unless you’re catfishing me.  
That would make sense actually.

 **seongwu**  
why would that make sense  
am i being dumb again  
everyone says i’m dumb once u get 2 know me

Minhyun chuckles at that. Then he stops himself from chuckling. Darn.

 **hwang minhyun**  
Only a little.

 **seongwu**  
!!!  
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
!@&$@&!$($&&$

Seongwu goes quiet afterwards. Good. Because for some reason, Minhyun finds it hard to leave him on read.

Five minutes later Minhyun knows he’s reached the right place by the huge crowd of people and the random bursts of shouting and screaming.

Everyone’s wearing costumes, mostly just simple makeshift things like what Minhyun’s wearing, but some have really gone all out. There’s a person wrapped in toilet paper from head to toe like a mummy, and another who’s painted themselves in all blue like a smurf. Seongwu’s 50% discount on the haunted house for turning up in Halloween gear must have really attracted people.

Minhyun’s kind of impressed that Seongwu’s idea had worked even though it was spontaneously brought up through text. He notices that the line for the ticketing booth is impossibly long. He has a feeling that Seongwu would tell him to skip the line and go straight to the front if he lets him know he’s here, so Minhyun joins the back of the queue and waits.

It doesn’t move for a few minutes and a few people disgruntledly leave, but then the pace picks up. Soon Minhyun is at the front of the line, but Seongwu is nowhere to be seen.

“Hi! Welcome to the acting society’s haunted house. I like your costume! How many tickets are you buying? Are you going in by yourself?”

“Uh, h-hello,” Minhyun stutters. Crap. “Is Seongwu here?”

The guy behind the table raises an eyebrow. He’s a lot younger than Minhyun, maybe older than Jinyoung, and his hair has been gelled into two loops to form bear ears. Not very scary, but his demeanour has suddenly changed from cutesy and bright– to not very at all.

The guy raises a walkie talkie. “Hey Park. You seen Ong?”

The walkie talkie crackles to life and Minhyun can hear the middle part of track 3, and even more screaming. “Nah, not sure Hoonie. Everything’s a bit messy since the shift change. Don’t think he has anything on today so he should still be around.”

“Kay thanks.”

The younger, Hoonie (?), brings his attention back to Minhyun. “No idea, sorry. Are you Minhyun? You look like a Minhyun. You wanted to go in the haunted house, yeah?”

“Um,” Minhyun utters, awkward as fuck because Seongwu isn’t at the ticketing booth at all. “Ummmm.”

Hoonie grabs his hand. “Here,” he says, pressing a stamp to the back of it. Ow. “Seongwu said you could have free admission. On the house. Well he didn’t say that but I assume he would.”

Minhyun looks at the stamp on his hand, a picture of a candy. “Oh. Thanks.”

“Have fun,” Hoonie says, raising a hand. “Not sure how scary it’d be since you did the music and all. But I’m obliged to say this anyway.” He wiggles his fingers ominously. “ _Beware of the blood!_ Sorry, it works when Seongwu’s doing it ‘cus he’s dressed as a vampire.”

“Ah.” He raises his fingers in response and tries to echo the other’s voice. “ _I will~_ ”

Hoonie gawks at him. “Gee, no wonder you joined the music society.”

Minhyun blinks back and then walks away, slightly dazed.

The huge crowd is slowly dissipating, most people going into the haunted house with a group of friends. Looking around at the people bouncing and chatting their nerves away, Minhyun realises that he has to go in himself.

When he reaches the entrance a girl puts a blindfold on him and pulls him inside. Once the surrounding noise becomes a dull echo, it’s only then that he remembers going into the haunted house hadn’t been his original intention at all.

The first thing he notices is that it’s impossibly cold.

Minhyun wraps his arms around his knitted sweater, attempting to seep some warmth through the softness of the fabric.

“Uh, should I take the blindfold off?” Minhyun calls into the silence. His heart is hammering in his chest.

“I’m… going to take it off now,” Minhyun says cautiously when there’s no response, slowly pulling the elastic off and then uncovering his eyes.

It’s pitch black, and it takes a while to adjust to the dimness.

When he does he sees that the small room is draped in plastic sheets, and splattered with what looks like red paint.

“Woah,” Minhyun breathes outs, slightly impressed. There’s an off-putting vanilla smell probably from the hidden fog machine hazing up the room, and he sees a red light shining through a small gap between the plastic.

As he begins to walk out of the room and down a narrow corridor, track 1 starts playing, the sound of dripping water and a combination of synth sounds still bringing chills down his spine.

This is actually kind of exhilarating.

Human-like silhouettes jerk and contort behind the plastic on either side of him, back-lit with red. Minhyun’s smiling because he’s nervous and petrified and kind of wishes there was someone here so he could chatter away the fear.

But there isn’t.

Instead he hears a rustle.

“AHHHH!!!!” Minhyun shouts when a deformed body bursts out through the plastic right in front of him. It stands there, panting, ready to consume his flesh, until Minhyun realises that it’s really just a guy covered in fake blood and prosthetic makeup and he bursts out laughing.

The guy twitches there awkwardly and Minhyun gives him a condescending pat on the back and a “Good job” because he feels like it.

The next few minutes are a breeze.

Track 2 has creaking and other heart-spasming noises, while things clatter to the floor and hands grab Minhyun’s ankles from under red-splattered tables. He jumps, but he can’t stop himself from giggling every time he feels fingers curl around his leg.

“Woah, hey! That tickles!” Minhyun exclaims in an extremely bright voice, looking down to see a pale hand withdrawing lethargically, in a movement that could probably be the visual representation of a sigh.

Track 3 is the one he had heard through the walkie talkie, so he has his heart prepared as he enters a mirror maze, and ghosts and other grotesquely-dressed monsters jump at him from different corners. Palming his way through the mirrored walls, he can see multiple copies of himself, and it’s amazing how so many people can fit in the various nooks and crannies. Minhyun’s flinching, and smiling, and running down a mirrored corridor being chased by a zombie, when he wonders whether Jinyoung is one of the scarers in the maze too.

The zombie follows him until he’s out, and in the distance he can hear the last track he’d composed— the sound of a cleaver being slammed into wood.

So… that would be the end.

Minhyun hesitates.

He looks back at the exit of the mirror maze, and then to the red glow coming from the subsequent door. Honestly, he has a big urge to go back.

Minhyun isn’t exactly sure if he’s supposed to, but he figures that he can subtly backtrack his way through the maze and check all the paths he didn’t go down to see if he had missed Jinyoung. And really, if Jinyoung enjoys what he’s doing, Minhyun swears he’ll stop pestering the kid he peer mentors about joining the music society.

Plus, he’s pretty sure that the next room is the vampire butcher room and if Seongwu isn’t at the ticketing booth, there’s really only one place he… can be.  

And facing monsters are one thing, but facing Seongwu alone is a whole… other.

Going backwards through the maze gives Minhyun a new perspective— the mirrors have been purposely positioned to let the scarers know when the next visitors are coming. From where he’s standing, completely unnoticed, Minhyun can see the zombie from before looking a lot more human while it chats animatedly into a walkie talkie.

“Yeah Hoonie, I’m doing fine. Hm? No idea, he should be in the butcher room-” is what Minhyun hears as he slips past. The rest of what the zombie is saying gets lost in an echo.

Minhyun wishes he’d asked Jinyoung what he dressed up as. A lot of the monsters are wearing masks and brandishing weapons so he’s not quite sure how to identify who is who. And now it seems they’re no longer zoning out, but preparing for new visitors, from the way they’re rearranging themselves and getting into position.

So this is probably a bad idea. Minhyun finds himself trapped in between a ghost and a disfigured shell of a person, both now on high alert. Leaning further into the little nook that he’s made his temporary home, he crosses his arms and thinks to the floor.

He figures that once the next visitors come by he can slip in behind them to get out of the mirror maze without messing anything up. That’s probably the best option. He’d also have a small crowd to move onto the next room with.

Looking at himself in the mirror, he pulls a face. Idiot. He’s probably the worst haunted house visitor in existence. Or maybe he’s the coolest. Anyway, he wants to keyboard smash into his phone and send sad face emojis to everyone on KakaoTalk.

Which reminds him. He quickly checks his notifications.

 **uri bae jinyoung ♡♡♡ (never change this hyung!!!)**  
hyung i got out of my shift!  
im with daehwi??  
where did you go??

Minhyun smiles and swears to himself that he should get out of here as fast as he can. There’s already shouting going on near him, so he balls his fists and takes a deep breath in preparation. From here, no mirrors are angled to capture the next visitor, but Minhyun can hear the incoming guy muttering to himself— it seems like there’s only one— and he catches the tail end of a comment in what possibly is the most smallest voice ever.

“- knew Lin Lin was going to be there and I _still_ got scared, am I the worst haunted house-”

“I’m pretty sure that’d be me,” Minhyun says in what he thinks is a very friendly manner, but he regrets it instantly because the being he walks in front of isn’t a normal university student, but _something_ with a horrific pig’s head, and Minhyun shouts in its face, and the pig head screams back, and suddenly there’s something flying toward him in his peripheral vision, and he tastes metallic.

“Fuck! H-hwang Minhyun? Oh crap. I’m so sorry! Are you okay? I’m so fucking sorry, crap.”

“Issa- m- kay-” Minhyun babbles, crumpling to the ground, too stunned to come up with anything else more coherent. Pressing a hand to his aching jaw, he tries to send a signal of reassurance to the pig head, but Minhyun just ends up scrunching his face in pain at the increasing dizziness.

The pig head falls to its knees in an act of extreme repentance, and Minhyun now recognises that its wearing a very realistic mask, pityfully buried in blood-stained hands. And they’re also momentarily distracting, because he realises that they’re surprisingly… pretty hands?

“I can’t believe- why are my ideas so dumb- I was just supposed to find you-”

Minhyun reaches out from where he’s sprawled out on the floor. It’s okay. It’s… okay. Minhyun’s the idiot who’d hid in a mirror maze, then thought it not at all stupid to step out in front of person amongst a million other jump scares. He disrupted what was probably a lovely haunted house experience up until this point, and— nice costume by the way, did pig head get more than 50% off at the stall?— was the one who ended up screaming in this poor guy’s face.

Is what he wants to say.

Instead, the sheer ridiculousness of it all translates to laughter.

Pig head looks up.

“W-what, is your head okay, are you okay, ah-” pig head stutters, as Minhyun clutches his jaw in one hand, and his stomach with the other, trying his hardest to contain the laughter that’s now obnoxiously echoing off the mirrored walls around them.

“T’is,” Minhyun sputters, “is s- really so-”

Minhyun bursts into another fit of laughter, the spinning in his head getting even worse, and so he tries to concentrate on one thing to keep himself in focus. The other guy is wearing a ruffled but well-fitting dress shirt, but Minhyun’s dizziness leads him to wonder if the blood splattered all over it can be washed off, and so furrowing his eyebrows, his fingers touch the edge of the shirt but-

“Hey, what’s going on here?”

The zombie from before is standing at the other end of the corridor. Head still woozy, Minhyun sees it point a finger. “Oh aren’t you- and you are… shit, did you hit him?”

“Was an accident,” Minhyun slurring reassures. His fingers move to pat the pretty hand. “T’is fake blood, I think.”

Minhyun looks over at pig head to confirm, but the guy seems to have frozen, staring at where Minhyun’s hand is placed over its bloody ones.

“I hope it’s fake,” the zombie says, gesturing at Minhyun. “Because it looks like there’s something bruising there.”

The haziness in Minhyun’s mind immediately clears and catching his breath, he grasps his jaw harder. “Uh, all of this blood was here before, right?”

“What?” pig head says, head jerking up in attention. It hurriedly nods, frantically, in a way that almost makes Minhyun start laughing again. “Yep! Yep it was!”

“Hey,” Minhyun chuckles. “It’s fine. It was partly my fault anyway.”

“Are you sure? Ah, I’m not- not that good with scary things, so I’m not sure why I even-”

“Look.” Minhyun gives its left shoulder a squeeze. “No concussion. I’m still functioning. There’s only a bit of the haunted house left, so let’s just keep going. Come along with me?”

“Only a bit? What do you m-” the other begins, but Minhyun quickly pulls it to its feet before it can continue. Pig head must still be scared because it seems reluctant to move, so Minhyun continues holding its hand and begins pushing his way through the mirror maze. The other monsters stare at them questioningly but Minhyun’s too intent on getting the hell out to notice.

“Um, Minhyun? Did you come in alone?” pig head asks after a minute of Minhyun’s determined walking.

“Yeah, only me,” Minhyun answers, turning into another dead end. Darn. “I wasn’t meant to, but somehow I ended up in here.”

There’s a pause. Another misstep. “Oh. You were supposed to come in with someone, weren’t you?”

“Kind of? I know the guy who organised this whole thing, so I thought he would be here, but-” Minhyun swallows. “Um. Nevermind. How do you know me anyway?”

“Ah! I’m actually-”

All of a sudden, Minhyun notices something reflected in the mirror behind them. Before he can react, however, he hears a big “RARGH!”

Pig head yells in shock, hand tearing away. Minhyun turns to see the zombie from before, standing there with its clawed arms terrifyingly raised.

A sob comes from below him. “I swear they’re targeting me,” pig head whimpers, crouching on the ground with hands covering the place where its human ears would be. “They know I get scared. They’re doing this on purpose.”

Minhyun wants to coo. Pig head’s probably a first year, new to the events on campus, and Minhyun’s peer mentoring instincts kick in.

“Hey,” Minhyun says softly, crouching down to reassuringly pat its back. “None of this is real. This was organised by the acting society, so everyone here studies acting. They’re meant to be scaring you.”

The zombie crouches down too. “Yeah, we’re just actors dude. That means everything here’s all fake, plus we’re not allowed to touch people anyway. So for example, if I punched someone, I wouldn’t want anyone to know ‘cus I’d get into heaps of trouble.”

Minhyun can feel pig head tense. “Yep,” Minhyun adds on in a hopefully soothing voice. “Everything’s all fake so you’ll be alright, and I’ll be here the whole time too.” He tries to look pig head in the eyes to show his sincerity. “Just relax, we’re getting out of here together.”

“Okay…” Pig head looks up and Minhyun smiles again. It stares back at Minhyun for a while, long enough that the disturbingly realistic mask begins to look a little cute, then it makes a final sniffle, takes a deep breath, and jumps up. “Okay! Let’s do this. Let’s get out of here!”

“Yes!” Minhyun laughs, and the zombie, looking satisfied, leaves to go ahead through the maze. “Lead the way.”

Which in retrospect had been the right thing for Minhyun to say, because it seems every path pig head chooses to go down is always the right one.

“It’s almost like you’ve done this before,” Minhyun comments, after the fifth jump scare and more of pig head’s wailing. “The first time I tried this it took me way too long. I was jumped by the same ghost thrice.”

“How are you so calm?” pig head sobs, trying to normalise its breathing against a mirror. “This maze is so scary.”

“Really?” Minhyun moves to pats its back. “Jump scares are fun though so it isn’t that bad.”

Pig head stops sobbing and quickly turns around. Minhyun imagines its eyes narrow.

“What?” Minhyun giggles.

“You- well maybe you should ask that organiser guy whether you can scare people too. He’d probably say yes.”

Minhyun’s throat goes dry. “Oh. Right.”

Seongwu.

As they near the end, the zombie doesn’t bother chasing them out of the maze, instead helpfully leading them down the right path. Soon Minhyun finds himself at the threshold of the butcher room, but the sound of the cleaver feels strangely synchronised to Minhyun’s pounding heart.

He hesitates.

“Hey uh, could I maybe stick to you for this part? I’m kind of… scared.”

“Oh.” Pig head glances back in surprise. “Sure!”

“Thank you,” Minhyun sighs, feeling the nerves creep in. He grasps pig head’s shoulders and tries to steady the thudding in his chest. “Just. Relax. We’re in here together.”

Pig head does the opposite and immediately tenses up.

The red-lit room looks like it’s divided into sections by partition walls. The first area is made to look like the inside of a cold room, and it’s littered with gurneys that Seongwu had borrowed from the medical department. Some gurneys have people lying there, dressed in paint-soaked bandages and horrific makeup. To proceed they can’t be avoided, and Minhyun jumps when they start screaming and writhing as pig head goes near.

“D-dont worry, Minhyun!” pig head loudly stutters, a clear shakiness in its voice. “They’re all fake!”

Minhyun just grips its shoulders firmer in response.

When they make it through the gurneys, pig head pauses at the entrance to the second area. It’s filled with the echoing of the cleaver sound, but it’s also completely empty, save for an eerily lit surgical curtain at the other end of the room.

And the curtain, even though it’s lit to presumably show a silhouette, seems to be concealing nothing as well.

Which is... odd.

To Minhyun, at least.

He assumes that there’s meant to be someone there, perhaps in hiding or something, but pig head just starts marching forward as if it’s lost all fear, and Minhyun has no choice but to be dragged along.

“Hey Minhyun,” pig head whispers. “Are you okay? Or is this vengeance for your bruise, because the way you’re holding onto my shoulders kind of hurts.”

Minhyun lets go immediately. “Sorry, I’m not sure what’s come over me.”

Pig head is silent for a few seconds and then offers an arm. “It’s okay. We’re almost out of the haunted house. You don’t have anything to be worried about, I promise.”

It’s dumb how Minhyun feels more scared by the prospect of Seongwu than anything else, and so looking down at the gesture, by the one who was just wailing and clutching its chest a few moments ago, Minhyun takes a deep breath and weaves an arm through.

“Then let's go!” pig head shouts, breaking out into a sprint before Minhyun can even comprehend. Everything blurs together, and before he knows it they’ve burst out through a door and to the outside.

“And it’s over,” pig head laughs, catching its breath with its hands on its knees. “I hope you had fun, Minhyun!”

“Yeah,” Minhyun blinks disorientedly. “Wait, who are you again…?”

But pig head is already waving and walking off. “I’ve got to get back to what I was doing, I’ll catch you later!”

Minhyun automatically returns the wave, slightly stunned, and that’s when he notices the candy stamp still at the back of his hand.

“Hang on…” Minhyun trails off, realising that pig head’s hand didn’t have a stamp at all.

 

˚*❋ ❋ ❋*˚

 

Minhyun checks the ticketing booth again, but he can only see Hoonie, distracted with something on his phone.

“Where are you…” Minhyun wonders out loud and he almost messages Seongwu, but then decides against it. Minhyun’s gone through the haunted house and the music is synced just fine. It’s all over now.

He clenches his jaw in determination and winces at the ache.

“Hyung!” Jinyoung says in obvious feigned excitement when Minhyun walks back to the stall. “You’re already back from the- I mean, where were you?!”

Now Minhyun’s basically been worm-feeding this kid like a mamma bird over the past year, and he knows from the way he’s trying to hide behind Daehwi, plus the undulating pitch of his voice, that something’s up.

“Jinyoung,” Minhyun says firmly. “What are you trying to hide? What’s that you’re wearing?”

“Nothing!” Jinyoung squeaks as Minhyun tries to get a better look.

“He’s a vampire butcher or something,” Daehwi answers instead, calmly detaching himself from Jinyoung. “Hyung, he’s been laughing at his phone for the past ten minutes and I’m pretty sure it’s because of you.”

Before Jinyoung can react, Minhyun snatches the younger’s phone off the table and looks at the new notification buzzing through.

 **linlin✌️ @ acting society**  
lol seongwu hyung is a scaredy cat

“Hey!” Jinyoung protests, taking the phone back. He falters at Minhyun’s death glare. “I mean, um, hyung? So…applications for the music society are still open, right?”

Minhyun crosses his arms. “You have something to tell me, don’t you?”

 

˚*❋ ❋ ❋*˚

 

“Ong Seongwu,” is what Minhyun says when he strolls up to the ticketing booth and cuts the line with the bravery of a thousand-strong army the next day.

“Minhyun! We finally meet!” is what Seongwu enthusiastically says in response, dressed in the exact same blood-splattered costume as what both Jinyoung and the pig head had been wearing the day before.

Minhyun has his first good look at the man, and the deadly combination of Seongwu’s styled hair, blue coloured contacts and blood red lips cause him to freeze.

It takes all of his effort to look Seongwu straight in the eye and will his voice to a normal pitch. “You’re acting.”

“No?” Seongwu replies, and the other’s lips do a weird twitchy thing as if they can’t decide whether to smile or to stay slightly agape.

Damn those lips.

Minhyun averts his eyes and picks up the walkie talkie on the table. “Hey Hoonie, can you come and take Ong’s shift?”

After the answering static comes through, he turns back to Seongwu. “You know how I got this right?” Minhyun asks, pointing at the purple swelling on his jawline.

He swears there’s a hint of something in Seongwu’s eyes for just a second, but then there’s a flash of a smile. “That Jaehwan guy finally got sick of you,” Seongwu guesses. “You put on too many scary movies, and he just went and socked you in the face.”

Minhyun almost giggles at that, but then he disguises it as a cough. “Ha. No. You see, the reason why I’m here is because jump scares are fun. People have unexpected reactions to them.”

Seongwu nods slowly. “That’s right, and I guess haunted houses are one way for a person to find out.”

Hoonie arrives at the booth in that moment, eyebrow raised, and Minhyun pulls Seongwu aside, ignoring the small _hey_ and the way the leanness of his arm fits in the curve of his hand. “Mhmm. For example, when Jaehwan is jumpscared, he screams and then hugs whoever scared him. I’m a little more courteous than that, because I know how hard they’ve worked. But you, Seongwu, I wonder what you do. You probably don’t even get scared right? You came up with the haunted house after all.”

Seongwu’s mouth stops twitching and surprisingly, it settles into an easy grin. “That’s right, I don’t get scared. Not at all.”

“Then go in the haunted house with me,” Minhyun suggests, lips reflexively curving into a smile.

“Nah, I’ve already seen everything so I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Seongwu tries to counter, but Hoonie seems to have been eavesdropping on their conversation because the next thing Minhyun knows Seongwu is being dragged into the crowd gathered in front of the haunted house by the younger guy.

“Are you coming in or what?” Hoonie turns and yells back.

Minhyun makes a mental note to thank him later and pushes forward.

There’s _sorry_ ’s (to the crowd) and ignored protests (from Seongwu), and soon Minhyun finds himself in complete darkness with his hands on Seongwu’s shoulders. The off-putting vanilla smell is back and when the blindfolds are taken off there’s a soft gasp of surprise from Seongwu.

“Whoaaa. This is- I mean. Sooo. So… is this your way of asking me out?”

Minhyun almost chokes on the fog. “What?”

“Yeah didn’t think so,” Seongwu says quickly, releasing himself from Minhyun’s grip and rushing forward through the plastic all by himself.

Standing alone in the paint-splattered room, Minhyun begins to wonder why exactly he needs closure in the first place. Bruises heal. And it had been an accident. Plus it’s happened, and it’s over, and it’s not like Minhyun can reverse time. Normally he’d just let it go, but then Minhyun remember that it’s _Seongwu,_ of all people.

The same Seongwu that Minhyun begrudgingly admits… he’s grown attached to.

He hears a yell.

“Seongwu,” Minhyun sighs, and as expected he’s crouching down in the middle of the corridor with his fingers in his ears, the deformed scarer standing next to him awkwardly.

Minhyun gives an apologetic smile to the scarer and it slinks back into the plastic.

“Hey Seongwu,” Minhyun whispers. “Are you okay?”

Seongwu flinches when Minhyun crouches down and begins to rub calming circles into his back, but then he eventually relaxes and takes his fingers out of his ears. “I’m not that good with scary things,” he admits.

“I know. And I know you were the guy who punched me yesterday too.”

Seongwu nods miserably. “Maybe…”

“Well it’s fine,” Minhyun smiles at the back of Seongwu’s bowed head. “I already said it was my fault anyway, and I forgive you, so you don’t have to be worried about anything anymore, okay?”

“Okay…” Seongwu trails off, and when he turns around, Minhyun’s breath catches in his throat as the other’s eyes wander around his face, the blueness contrasted in the red light eerily ethereal. “I’m so sorry, it must've hurt a lot,” Seongwu whispers, and Minhyun feels the coolness of Seongwu’s finger come into contact with his warming skin.

All of a sudden there’s a rustle beside them and a loud “RARGH!” and Seongwu yells and falls back onto his bottom, and Minhyun freezes for a second before bursting into laughter.

“I'm so sorry hyung. I'm really sorry guys, I know you’re having a moment, but you kind of have to move on,” deformed scarer apologises.

Seongwu lets out a shaky breath. “Ah. It’s okay Niel, I know.”    

Then he cracks a smile when he notices Minhyun still laughing. “You’re so weird Minhyun. Who laughs in a haunted house?”

“I don’t know,” Minhyun manages out. “It’s scary but funny at the same time. I don’t know.”

Wrapping his arms around his knees, Seongwu continues to smile patiently until Minhyun catches his breath. It’s sweet. Minhyun never would’ve done that, instead probably opting to shake his head in frustration.

“Let’s go finish this,” Minhyun suggests, standing up and reaching out. “Hold my hand?”

Seongwu blinks a couple of times, but Minhyun just offers it again. “I think you’ll need it."

There's a chuckle in response, and Minhyun feels warmth as Seongwu grasps his hand. “Yeah. I think so too.”

 

˚*❋ ❋ ❋*˚

 

“What the heck was that, what was Jinyoung doing in there?!?!?!” Minhyun gasps as he and Seongwu practically fall out of the exit to the haunted house and into the light.

“I have no idea,” Seongwu whimpers, clutching tightly onto Minhyun’s arm. “I just tell them to do whatever as long as it’s scary, but that was like, I don’t even know.”

“I thought that pig mask was a little cute when _you_ were wearing it, but Jinyoung just- what _was_ that?”

“Hah,” Seongwu pants, and the both of them stand there with heaving chests, trying to regain their sanity. Minhyun can feel the burning hot of Seongwu’s touch on his bicep, and Seongwu is practically squeezed up next to him, eyes closed, and Minhyun just- Minhyun kind of wants this moment to last a little longer.

Eventually he feels the pressure around his arm loosen. “Ah sorry,” Seongwu apologises. “I didn't even realise. Hopefully I didn’t give you another bruise.”

“It’s fine,” Minhyun chuckles, patting his arm to show that he’s okay. “I don’t mind bruises if they’re from you-” Eyes widening, he shakes his head. “I mean- not in _that_ way.”

Seongwu- lovely, kind, patient Seongwu- _smirks._

“Yeah. Okay.”

“No!” Minhyun tries to rectify. “I really didn’t mean it in that way.”

“Mm. Yep.” Seongwu nods unconvincingly. Is Minhyun feeling okay? He doesn’t feel annoyed one bit.

Seongwu turns and points somewhere to his left. “Hey, do you want to do some apple bobbing?”

Minhyun pulls a face. “Yuck. Unhygienic.”

“Then let’s do some scary face painting.”

Minhyun shakes his head. “I’ve got class in an hour so no thanks.”

“Hmm,” Seongwu hums. “I hear Jaehwan will sing whatever you like if you bribe him enough.” Seongwu gestures to the figure holding a guitar in the distance creeping up to a group of people.

“Oh hey, let’s do that,” Minhyun agrees. “Except I’ll just get him to play the guitar, and then I’ll sing whatever _I_ like.”

“Sounds like a deal,” Seongwu says, and then his smile widens. “Or sounds like a date.”

Minhyun feels his heart bounce. It’s similar. Similar to being suddenly scared, of a jump scare, like in the haunted house. But at the same time it’s different. It’s a different feeling, because this time, he expects it.

It’s Seongwu, after all.

“Okay,” Minhyun agrees. “Sounds like a date.”

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed & thankyou for reading! <3 
> 
> i wrote this fic in bits so hopefully it reads okay- the first and second halves were written about a month apart because i was overseas (halloween -> christmas are two very different atmospheres :p)  
> thankyou to the snowfox mods for being so patient <3, i'm always horrible at deadlines, but you guys have been amazing with organising this wonderful fest :D
> 
>  _~ some trivia i couldn't fit in ~_  
>  \- minhyun's jump scare idea for halloween last year, which he proposed at the president meet-up, was what inspired seongwu to propose his haunted house idea in the first place!  
> \- and seongwu was the one who took jinyoung's shift for him (the vampire pig butcher) because onghwang are just too whipped for their children  
> \- scarers: track 1 (plastic room)- daniel; track 2 (grabby room)- sungwoon; track 3 (mirror room)- guanlin, zombie woojin; track 4 (butcher room)- jinyoung, (supposedly) seongwu


End file.
